"I'm going to speak my mind because I have nothing to lose."--S.I. Hayakawa

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Sunday, July 16, 2017

Gullible's Travels: Reports from the Field

Report
Number 1

The
Grizzly bear is huge and wild;

He
has devoured the infant child.

The
infant child is not aware

It
has been eaten by the bear.

—A.E. Housman

It’s Saturday the first of July and I’m right
where I want to be.I love this place,
which happens to be:

1) one of the most
earthquake active spots in Alaska;

2) on the flanks
of a volcano with fumaroles often mistaken for eruptions; and

3) populated by a large number of freaking huge
brown bears.

In fact, I’m looking at two of those bears
right now.They’re right across the
meadow from the cabin where I will stay for the next five nights.And, by gosh, there are three people out
there risking their lives to get close to those bears!

And what’s that?Dang!It’s a red fox running past the bears.

I hesitate to tell you where I am, for
reasons that I will explain in a different report.But, I’ve been here before, even posted a
map showing exactly where it is, along with a bunch of photos and….

Whoops,
there goes a prickly porcupine lumbering across the yard.

Tomorrow is my brother’s 70th
birthday.I’m going to miss it because
I don’t really have any way of contacting him from here.I already sent him birthday greetings, and—what
the heck—I’ll shoot a bear for his birthday.

Okay, here’s the deal.I’m at Silver Salmon Creek, staying at the
lodge of the same name.I signed up for
a six-day photo workshop led by professional photographer Rick Collins.There are six of us in the group:two Jeannes (of which I am one), Dacia, Bob
and Gayle, and another Rick.I’m the
only one who lives in Alaska.

Silver Salmon Creek Lodge

Silver Salmon Creek

A winter photo of the cabin I'm staying in. This is a photo of a photo on the wall in the cabin. Can't face it full on, so the photo is a bit skewed.

Our cabin is the one highlighted by the sun's rays.

Silver Salmon Creek is on the west shore
of Cook Inlet, approximately across the Anchorage River on the east coast.Years ago this place was a fisherman’s
paradise for salmon.It’s still a good
place to fish, but the emphasis has turned to photography.

Of what, you might ask.

Well, not the volcano, Mt. Iliamna,
because you can’t see it from right here.You have to take a short boat ride south to get a good view.On a clear day, you can see the upper cone
of Mt. Augustine, another of the four volcanoes that are on the western shore
of Cook Inlet.And on the flight down
here from Anchorage, you pass the other two volcanoes—Spurr and Redoubt.They are active, as is Augustine.

2015 photo

You can’t photograph an earthquake even
with a vibration reduction lens.You can
only photograph the damage afterwards.

Damage in Anchorage after the Great Alaskan Earthquake of 1964

So that leaves those freaking huge brown
bears.And that’s why I’m here, along
with a dozen or more other guests here at the lodge.

Bears, bears, and more bears.The more bears the better, bring ‘em
on.No guns, no bear spray, just
cameras, lens, and tripods.

And guide Rick, of course, who knows all
these fuzzy critters first hand.And right
now, Rick wants us to get some minimal equipment together so we can scout the
field before lunch.Translation:Go find bears.

How we roll... Two trailers towed by an ATV four-wheeler.

Those two bears are still across the field
and those two people are still alive.Don’t
see the red fox, though.

No guns. No bear spray. Why not the bear spray? Well they are probably well fed this time of year. You didn't say where the other live. Rick Collins? The leader of the pack. You imply they got the fox. Odd little poem at the beginning. Does the author mean the bears own cub. Cheerio. Cap and Patti